What Wharton student doesn't like to picture him or herself, 30 years from now, at a party hosted by a Spielberg type in Beverly Hills, drinking martinis in the company of $5,000 noses?
If only Wharton taught books before box office returns or recommended novels instead of subscriptions to Variety. Because according to Ismail Merchant, of Merchant/Ivory Productions, what makes good producers is that they... read.
Merchant, a veteran of more than 40 films, has both produced and directed the company's many noteworthy films, mostly adaptations from British literature. His are the type of films that luxuriate in velour upholstery and resonate with high-class British accents. And several of Merchant's films -- Howard's End, The Remains of the Day, A Room With a View -- have been showered with Oscar nods. At a press interview in conjunction with the Philadelphia Weekend Film Festival earlier this month, the India native explained the nature of the biz, as well as why producers are like machine guns:
STREET: Could you weigh in a little on the Hollywood scene?
[Filmmakers] are not thinking in terms of story and character. They are thinking, "What will attract the maximum at the box office in the first weekend?"
Everything now in Hollywood is just driven. Even the people who are in charge, the heads of the studios, they hardly read. They say, "Okay, this actor, this actress: pay them $20 million -- Julia Roberts: $25 million -- and do the film." Well, Julia Roberts... and the studio have not even read the script. But the agents, the managers, want to do it. It's become a very... sad situation.
How have methods of producing changed in the last 50 years?
Big corporations are interested in devouring small corporations. They are not interested in art. So forget that. You know, the situation of art is very precarious in this country. Even the government, they are least interested in art. They cut the funding.... The thing you have to do is raise money through your own sources... friends, distributors.
What attracts you to a book, to turn it into a movie?
The story... and what the characters say, and how they interact with each other. The cross-cultural theme is very prevalent in our work. That's one of the most important things. And if you look at all the great writers -- [Henry] James, [E.M.] Forster -- they all use cross-cultural themes.
Do you have any particular purpose when you translate books into films?
Well, the book becomes more popular because it is source material. Forster had never sold more than 50,000 copies of a book, and now, with the making of [Howard's End], it is 4.5 million copies. So I think this is a very special service we have performed over the years. Of course, when the book comes out, it gives you the pleasure to read, but when the film is there the audiences multiply, and they go back again to the source. But the material has to be good.
Do you have any words for an aspiring young producer?
If you want to do something, then stick to it. If you are passionate about some idea or a script, you just have to get one or two collaborators. If you want to be a director, you have to have a writer. So if you work with a good writer then you will produce a good script, and then you go to the actors... the studios. I always just say you have to be like a machine gun and start shooting [collaborators] down, not in a [literal] sense, but in the way you go to them, badger them, never take "no" for an answer.
